Well, I'm off again. I attended the Publishing Day in the Irish Writers Centre and , for those of you who haven't already, you should sign up for one of the great courses they are running this Autumn/Winter.
It was a great day - lively and informative - and I met lots of lovely people from the world of the written word. Mega.
I thought Emma Walsh (no relation) - literary agent - was brilliant. Emma is young, tuned-in and obviously loves what she does. Exactly the type of person you want selling your work. Passion.
Eoin Mc Hugh from Transworld spoke about a publishers p.o.v. and he was flippin' scary. And passionate. And above all - human. Exactly the sort of editor/publisher you want.
The lovely Lynn Crampton from Dubray Books give a deeply insightful look into the world of the bookseller. This lady loves books - and it showed. Passion.
Corkonian Gareth Cuddy of http://directebooks.com spoke about ebooks and the way ahead. The man is an Irish visionary - he'll be loaded one day. Passion.
And then came God. Carlo Gebler. Stephen Fry should have him on that aul' Q.I. panel - he is one of them intellectual lot - and he is funny and philosophical. And I'd say he loves his Mammy and his wife and his kids. So he's a good one. And the BBC could pay him enough to stop him fretting about making a living from being himself.
G'wan Carlo!
Showing posts with label carlo gebler. Show all posts
Showing posts with label carlo gebler. Show all posts
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
GOD came to fighting words!!!!!!!1
Those of you who know me know how I rave about Carlo Gebler's teaching skills, so much so that he is referred to as God in our house! I did a workshop with him at Listowel Writer's week in 2009 and I have never, ever seen anyone control a room better. He focuses intensely on each participant and gently suggests changes or methods one can apply to one's writing. So I was delighted when I arrived at fightingwords.ie to do my week's volunteering for the teenage fiction writing summer camp to find Carlo was one of the guest facilitators.
He had those young people eating out of his hand and the amount of raw energy and talent in that room was unreal. We may all give up writing folks (not that we will as it's addictive)the next wave of writers are bright bold and sassy and most of them know exactly what they want from Life. I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up until I was in my forties. I always admire those who dedicate themselves to their passion/art/whatever (once it's non-chemical) at a young age, before the needs of feeding and clothing a family become imperative that one earn's a living in some other way.
When I was at the age those lovely kids in Fighting Words are today my life map was a as follows
1. Get a job, any job - college wasn't a runner in a cash strapped Ireland for the oldest child of a family of seven kids whose mother was a part-time shop assistant and whose father was a regular pounding the beat Garda.
2. Find a fella I could get on with - that was hard for me, my body shape and intellect and general bossiness kept the boys away. I was also painfully shy and self-aware around men. Yiz just make me nervous, lads.But then I met a mountainy man from Donegal, my big gentle Jemser - AND HE LOVED ME. ME!
3. Have a bit of fun drinking and gallivanting.
4. Read a million books
5. Buy a house in suburbia and have my babies. Stop reading anything more than thrillers and easy reads for a couple of years
6. Start reading another million books
7. Take an evening class and find writing sitting there waiting for me, like walking into a room where suddenly everyone is speaking the same language as me. They understand what I'm saying.
8. Now I have the menopause and death to look forward to - but I'll happily write my way through those two.
Now these sassy lovely, lovely, talented youngsters have a huge range of options open to them. I hope each and every one of them finds there 'thing' whatever it is that makes them happy, gives them a reason to get up in the morning and greet the day.
'Gwan ye good tings
He had those young people eating out of his hand and the amount of raw energy and talent in that room was unreal. We may all give up writing folks (not that we will as it's addictive)the next wave of writers are bright bold and sassy and most of them know exactly what they want from Life. I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up until I was in my forties. I always admire those who dedicate themselves to their passion/art/whatever (once it's non-chemical) at a young age, before the needs of feeding and clothing a family become imperative that one earn's a living in some other way.
When I was at the age those lovely kids in Fighting Words are today my life map was a as follows
1. Get a job, any job - college wasn't a runner in a cash strapped Ireland for the oldest child of a family of seven kids whose mother was a part-time shop assistant and whose father was a regular pounding the beat Garda.
2. Find a fella I could get on with - that was hard for me, my body shape and intellect and general bossiness kept the boys away. I was also painfully shy and self-aware around men. Yiz just make me nervous, lads.But then I met a mountainy man from Donegal, my big gentle Jemser - AND HE LOVED ME. ME!
3. Have a bit of fun drinking and gallivanting.
4. Read a million books
5. Buy a house in suburbia and have my babies. Stop reading anything more than thrillers and easy reads for a couple of years
6. Start reading another million books
7. Take an evening class and find writing sitting there waiting for me, like walking into a room where suddenly everyone is speaking the same language as me. They understand what I'm saying.
8. Now I have the menopause and death to look forward to - but I'll happily write my way through those two.
Now these sassy lovely, lovely, talented youngsters have a huge range of options open to them. I hope each and every one of them finds there 'thing' whatever it is that makes them happy, gives them a reason to get up in the morning and greet the day.
'Gwan ye good tings
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